Plays of Three Acts; Written for a Private Theatre

Dublin: Price, Colles, Gilbert et al., 1784. Leather. Very Good. 7.5" by 4.5". None. A first edition of this volume containing five of William Hayley's plays: The Happy Prescription, Marcella, The Two Connoisseurs, Lord Russel, and The Mausoleum. William Hayley (1745-1820)was a successful poet and playwright. His plays included the tragedies Lord Russell and Marcella. In 1793 Anna Seward, praising the sentiments of Lord Russell, describing them as "pleasing, natural and pathetic", also deemed the play as "lacking spirit and variety" (Letters of Anna Seward, 3.212) in style. Earlier, Joseph Wright of Derby had stated that "never was anything finer wrote than Ld. Russel" (1784?, from photocopies of part of the Gilbert S. Inglefield collection in the possession of the keeper of art at Derby City Museum and Art Gallery). The opinion of each may well have been coloured by the state of their existing relationship with Hayley: Wright and he held a mutual admiration while Seward, suffering a distinct cooling of friendship in contrast to what she had enjoyed some years earlier, became one of Hayley's severest critics. Of Marcella she wrote that it had a "disgusting" plot, and so was "never likely to please" (Letters of Anna Seward, 3.212). Nevertheless, this was staged simultaneously by two rival theatres in 1789. Hayley sought—but failed—to improve morality through his plays and his Lord Russell and Marcella, both in blank verse, have more recently been referred to as "pseudo-Shakespearean" (Bishop, 127). Whatever the opinion of his works, Hayley, nevertheless, was deemed to possess "some skill in moving compassion" (ibid., 128, quoting Cary in the London Magazine). (DNB) Rebound in half-morocco with marbled boards. Externally very smart, with very little wear. Internally, firmly bound. Ink signature to title page. Pages generally bright, with just some scattered spotting. Very Good